A Portrait of the Artist as a Bildungsroman

Write about the relationship between A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and Hader/Hirsh's explanation of the bildungsroman genre. Use the prompt found here but everywhere the prompt says Jane Eyre think A Portrait and everywhere it says Charlotte Bronte think James Joyce.

(You might also consider A Portait's relationship to the kunstlerroman genre.

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (chapter 5)

Write a substantial post (300+ words) explaining how a passage in chapter 5 is significant to the work as a whole. (Use close reading techniques. In other words explain the significance of techniques like motif, imagery, allusion, style, tone, etc. in the passage.)

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Chapter 4)

A Portrait of the Artist (Chapter 3)

Explain how some of what you've written about already extends into chapter 3. Think about the motifs and themes. Think about Stephen's development (as person and artist). Think about St. Stephen and Daedalus/Icarus. Think about the style. How do these develop in chapter 3.

A Portrait of the Artist (Chapter 2)

Explain how particular passages in chapter 2 make use of the motifs and develop the themes first introduced in chapter 1. (Don't just identify the motifs and themes in the passages but discuss how they are significant.)

How does all of it relate to Stephen's development as an individual (bildungsroman) and artist (kunstlerroman) within a particular environment?

&, if you dare, explain how all of this is related to Stephen Dedalus' name; Stephen, the Christian martyr, and Dedalus, the artificer and father of Icarus.

Finally, go back and look at a particular passage. Analyze how the style is similar to or different from the style used elsewhere. How is the style significant?

A Portrait of the Artist (Chapter 1)

Discuss how the themes and motifs we discovered in the first page and a half of the text are significant elsewhere in chapter one. (We discovered other, related motifs and themes, repeated elsewhere in the first chapter; you might right about this too -- or instead.) Analyze the significance of the motifs and themes in specific passages.

Discuss how the way the book is written -- the narrative perspective, point of view, and voice; the impressionistic, episodic narrative style -- is significant. Analyze the style and voice in specific passages.

(If you'd like something a little more specific you could explain how the first page and half teach the reader how to read the book by introducing the narrative style, motifs, and themes that pervade the rest of the novel.)

Creative Nonfiction and the Not-for-College Essay

On Tuesday and Wednesday we read, took notes on, and discussed excerpts from Phillip Lopate's essay "Are We Living Through a Resurgence of the Essay?" We were especially keen to find answers to his question: "How can you tell a first-rate essay?"

To answer the question we looked at Lopate's own words but now we'll cast our net farther into the sea of personal essay writing. So let's go over to Brevity: a Journal of Concise Creative Nonfiction. By class time on Monday (1:16 pm) read and respond to one piece that you find there. (I've read and enjoyed most of the essays in the Fall 2009 issue.)

Your response should focus on interpreting how the author's use of literary techniques (language choices) contributes to meaning and effect.

How does the way it is written affect what it means? How does the way it is written affect the reader? How is the author using language in a way that will provoke you to think and feel certain things?

After analyzing how the piece works you might also evaluate if it has done what it sets out to do well and if what it sets out to do is worth doing.